Daily Prayer

Tuesday, 29 December 2009

Stanley Hauerwas on Leadership

Paul writes – Now while not a
“Hauerwas groupie” I have a huge admiration for his thinking and ways of being
in the world, ways that emerge out of his theology. I’ve read numerous essays
by him over the years, and have thoroughly enjoyed introductions to Hauerwas by the likes of William Cavanaugh, and
the occasional published PhD thesis
that interacts with Hauerwas’ thinking, particularly in relation to
ecclesiology. I’m very much looking forward to reading his memoir, while hoping that Walter Brueggemann is doing something
similar (or having somebody write his theological
biography).

Meantime I enjoyed reading a brief interview on leadership with
Stanley Hauerwas.

“Leadership
can’t be abstracted from the communities that make it possible, says
Stanley Hauerwas, a Duke Divinity School professor considered to be one of the
[United States of America’s] most influential theologians.”

Here are
some excerpts:

“...Power is rightly one of the
gifts God has given us for the formation of good communities and good people.
The way you put the question presupposes that you might have an alternative.
You don’t. You have to discuss questions of how you discover those among you
with gifts necessary for the whole community...

...So much of how creative
authority works is by being articulate for the community about what needs to be
done in a way that defies limits. It
often comes by reframing and helping us discover ways to understand where we
are in terms that do not reproduce the necessities of the past...

...The recognition of limit is a good discipline for discovering what kind
of institution you actually should be...

... I have often been identified as someone who is very critical of the
institutions of which I’m part. I oftentimes am, but that’s a lovers’ quarrel.
I’m, I hope, a very institutional person...

... The church’s liturgy has been a history
of constant innovation. Innovation
should occur in a way that we recognize continuities through time.

It was a bad innovation when the revivalistic
structure overtook the church’s primary liturgical form in a way that
charismatic preachers replaced the centrality of Eucharist...

... People called to administrative
positions have to undergo a deep ascetical discipline. You’re dealing with people who have possibilities and limits, the
limits sometimes will drive you crazy, and you cannot take it personally.

...You do this to provide space for the
different gifts of the community. I’m very Pauline in this. Communities have
diversities of gifts. Part of your responsibility as an administrator and
leader is to help members of the community own them as contributing to the
overall good of the community. To be in a position of power means that you
recognize how fragile the power is. You wouldn’t have it otherwise. And you
have enough confidence that you don’t have to win all the time. That’s a real
ascetic discipline, a discipline of the ego, which is absolutely crucial for
being an administrator and to allow the institution to go on once you’re no longer
there...

...For any person that wants to be in leadership, if they try to lead in a
way that means they don’t have to deal with people, they automatically defeat
community. It is everyday interactions that make it possible for there to be
people who tell the truth to us one at a time in the hopes that in that process
we will be a truthful community...”

You can read the complete interview and watch a brief video clip here.